Gozo Malta

Hi,

The day we went over to Gozo its was a bank holiday on the Island,  it was very busy on the ferry across to Gozo from Malta, as many families were having a day out on Gozo  

Gozo is Malta's smaller sister island it is more fertile and more picturesque and far more unspoilt.  Malta and Gozo have a lot of history too much for me to write on here.  The capital is Victoria the Gozitans always use the name of Rabat it is the only town on Gozo and was named Victoria in 1897 and is in the centre of the island and has been the capital of Gozo since the Roman times.  There are several villages around the island.  The picture above was taken as we arrived in the ferry port on Gozo

 We went to the Ggantija Temples,   in the past they were known as the The Giants Tower,  they are the best preserved and most impressive prehistoric temple.  It is probably the finest of ancient remains in these Islands and can be compared with Stonehenge for grandeur.  It was uncovered around 1826.   It is older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids.

View from the Temple.

 Ggantija consists of two separate systems of courtyards which do not interconnect.   The South Temple is bigger  and earlier (c.3600 B.C.)  and better preserved incorporating 5 large apses.
The North Temple which is smaller and later (c.3000 B.C.) with 4 apse structure.
Wood or animal hides might have been used as roofing material.

 Two types of stones were used in the construction "talfranka" the soft stone mainly used inside as floor slabs and portals.
"talqawwi" a harder stone mostly used for walls and general construction.   Traces have been found that the walls inside were painted with red ochre.

 Inner part of the Temple,  as you can see there is some scaffolding up unfortunately time and the weather is taking its toll on the temple.  As this is a very important site there's not a lot that can be done,  these are the possibly oldest free standing structures in possibly  in the world.

 These pictures show inside and they are the remains of the alters sacrifices where they  were made,  and worshipped,  I don't know what gods they were worshipping,  as I don't remember the guild saying.

I hope you enjoyed my piece on Gozo,  I did not take a lot of photos on this trip over to Gozo some places were just too busy,  we did visit an craft centre and Victoria that's where I brought the bobbin lace bookmark which I showed you a few weeks ago.
                         Hugs
                     Margaret